Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - H2ME (Hydrogen Mobility Europe)

Teaser

H2ME brings together Europe’s 4 most ambitious national initiatives on hydrogen mobility (Germany, Scandinavia, France and the UK). The project aims to expand their developing networks of HRS and the fleets of fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs) operating on Europe’s roads, to...

Summary

H2ME brings together Europe’s 4 most ambitious national initiatives on hydrogen mobility (Germany, Scandinavia, France and the UK). The project aims to expand their developing networks of HRS and the fleets of fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs) operating on Europe’s roads, to significantly expand the activities in each country and start the creation of a pan-European hydrogen fuelling station network. In creating a project of this scale, a physical but also a strategic link has been created between the regions that are leading in the deployment of hydrogen. The project also includes ‘observer countries’ (Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands), who are using the learnings from this project to develop their own hydrogen mobility strategies. The project is the most ambitious coordinated hydrogen deployment project attempted in Europe. The scale of this deployment will allow the consortium to:
•Trial a large fleet of FCEVs in diverse applications across Europe - 200 OEM FCEVs (Daimler and Toyota) and 125 fuel cell range-extended vans (Symbio collaborating with Renault) will be deployed
•Deploy 29 refuelling stations, using technology from the full breadth of Europe’s hydrogen station providers. The scale will ensure that stations will be lower cost than in previous projects and that Europe’s hydrogen station developers advance together
•Conduct a real-world test of 4 national hydrogen mobility strategies and share learnings to support other countries’ strategy development
•Analyse the customer attitude to the FCEV proposition, with a focus on attitudes to the fuelling station networks as they evolve in each country
•Assess the performance of the refuelling stations and vehicles in order to provide data of a sufficient resolution to allow policy-makers, early adopters and the hydrogen mobility industry to validate the readiness of the technology for full commercial roll-out

Work performed

Key progress made during the 3rd period of the project:
•The commissioning of 8 public HRS across Scandinavia (Hovik, Norway), France (Paris Sud), Germany (Magdeburg, Aachen, Leipzig and Potsdam) and the UK (Beaconsfield and Aberdeen)
•Civil works are underway at Laatzen, Berlin, Leverkusen, Berg bei hof, Essen, Hagenow, Halle, Herten, Bayreuth, Fürth, Passau, Schnelldorf, Rodez, and Gatwick
•Deployment of 256 H2ME vehicles since the start of the project (40 B-CLASS F-CELL Daimlers, 125 Symbio vans and 91 Toyota Mirai) and the sale of all 9 remaining Toyotas
•Continued harmonisation with H2ME2, allowing for the sharing of knowledge and best practices between partners and the successful operation of 400 vehicles and the commissioning of 16 HRS combined between the 2 projects so far
•3 business case workshops have been held to understand the routes to commercialisation for FCEVs and the role of specific niches in kick-starting the sector
•A state of charge workshop has been created to tackle a major barrier to the commercialisation of HRSs. Investigations have also been launched into payment methods
•Early emerging conclusions from the project have been disseminated at several European conferences
•Technical data sets for equipment in operation were delivered and analysed; HRS in operation have achieved >95% availability to date and dispensed 21,650kg of H2. The H2ME project vehicles relying on these HRS have now driven 3,051,950 km

Key findings in the project:
•FCEVs and fuel cell range-extended vans are operated with very similar patterns to petrol/diesel vehicles (trip distance, refuelling etc.). The vehicles have proven to be highly reliable and durable during the real-world trial with good performance and no safety incident related to road operation under all conditions
•There is an increasing convergence between hydrogen mobility rollout strategies across the coalitions in the project. Findings indicate that coalitions are moving towards:
oColocation of vehicles and HRS
oDeveloping viable clusters of stations in key locations (e.g. metropolitan areas)
oMixed vehicle types and high demand applications (e.g, taxis fleets) to help sustain the early network
•Attractive ownership models (e.g. highly utilised fleet of FCEVs) identified in previous reports are now being implemented more widely both within and outside of the H2ME group of partners
•Financial incentives for vehicles work best in combination with other benefits types for users e.g. priority lanes access. There is a growing interest for hydrogen and fuel cell applications at the national level with a new funding programme confirmed amongst others in Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK)
•Initial analysis suggests grid balancing revenues and electricity price optimisation could lead to reduced hydrogen prices, improving the economic case of hydrogen mobility
•More incentives for zero emission vehicles are needed to encourage switch to hydrogen vehicles for fleet and private users
•The main cause of delays in HRS installation is the permitting process – there is no close European commonality in the processes, regulations, codes, and standards involved in HRS installation. To mitigate against this, a relatively centralised decision-making system is recommended allowing established precedent and experience gained through HRS installation to be applied to future installations
•Lead time for building permits and planning authorisations still need to be reduced. Previous experience acquired has already allowed faster treatment of applications on the HRS suppliers side but further improvements are required to quicken applications from other sides (e.g. evaluation of application by authorities, connection to grid services etc.) H2M Deutschland have been able to reduce the permitting process length from 9 months down to 3 months in some cases by improving the quality of documentation upfront, ensuring personal contact and obtaining

Final results

Good progress has been realised towards achieving or exceeding the 2014 FCH-JU AWP targets:
-All vehicle deployed have min. TRL 7 and all 700bar HRS are or will be accessible for private drivers. In total 23 are integrated in petrol forecourts
-Measurement, monitoring and evaluation of vehicle and station contribute to the development of a valuable dataset :
-All HRS are expected to operate for > or just under 2 years in the project
-The current average for availability of HRS is 96.3%, with 4 HRS currently exceeding the target of 97%
-All vehicles are expected to be in operation for >12 months or 10,000km

Website & more info

More info: http://h2me.eu/.